To mark Children’s Mental Health Week, one young man talks about how he is using his experiences to help others | by Joseph Pascoe for NHS England

When I look back at how mental health has been addressed over my life at school, I have to say the information given is rather pathetic.

All I really remember is being taught in school that if someone is talking about their mental health, it is because they have a ‘problem’; and that if someone has a mental health problem they are either depressed or just crazy.

It is only now that I see how poor the information on this subject has been and I can’t blame the teachers because they don’t properly know the problems themselves.

Everyone has mental health. It is just like your physical health and you need to monitor it and work on it every so often.